Standard Oil Co. of New York v. Malaguti

• Decision Date: 15 November 1929
• Parties: STANDARD OIL CO. OF NEW YORK v. MALAGUTI et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

269 Mass. 126

168 N.E. 535

STANDARD OIL CO. OF NEW YORK

v.MALAGUTI et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

Nov. 15, 1929.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Suffolk County; S. E. Qua, Judge.

Action by the Standard Oil Company of New York against Lionel Malaguti and another. Plaintiff's motion for a judgment in its favor was allowed, and a motion of defendants for judgment in their favor was denied, subject to the exceptions of the defendants. Exceptions overruled.

F. W. Mansfield, of Boston, for defendants.

RUGG, C. J.

This is an action of contract whereby the plaintiff seeks to recover against the defendants, alleged to be a copartnership, an aggregate of several items set forth in an account annexed. The case was referred to an auditor whose material findings are these: ‘The plaintiff's sales ledger, introduced in evidence, contained charges to the defendants for gas and oil delivered to them in various amounts and at different times corresponding to the items set out in the account annexed to its declaration. These charges were posted in the sales ledger from invoices which were made up from delivery slips the same day the deliveries were made. These entries, I find, were made in good faith, in the regular course of business and before this proceeding was commenced. There was no other evidence in the case. There was no evidence of any demand for payment prior to the date of the writ, and I find that the defendants are indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of Eight Hundred Ninety-six and 46/100 ($896.46) dollars, with interest to be added from May 13, 1926, the date of the writ.’ The plaintiff filed a motion for judgment in its favor, as did also the defendants. The plaintiff's motion was allowed; the defendants' motion was denied subject to the exceptions of the defendants.

It is provided by G. L. c. 233, § 78, that ‘an entry in an account kept in a book * * * or by any other system of keeping accounts shall not be inadmissible in any civil proceeding as evidence of the facts therein stated because it is transcribed or because it is hearsay or self-serving, if the court finds that the entry was made in good faith in the regular course of business and before the beginning of the civil proceeding aforesaid.’ It has been held that such an entry is admissible to show to whom the account is charged, that is to say, to whom the goods were sold and delivered. Taylor v. Harrington, 243 Mass. 210, 213, 137 N. E. 350. Although...